Ticker for August 15, 2024

                
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August 15, 2024    August 15, 2024    August 15, 2024    August 15, 2024


Just a smidge to the north




Heat and summer go hand in hand, like some of the great pairings of the past...
Romeo and Juliet, Laurel and Hardy, Scott Baio and Willie Aames (was Charlies
REALLY in charge??). But to each great pairing, there also comes a parting.

No, "PARTING." There's no Taco Bell involved.

Anyway, sometime soon, like October 23 or November 18, summer will depart and
fall will arrive for good. Then winter arrives 7 days later with a massive ice
storm. But we still have a lot of summer to go, unfortunately. That area over
the Northeastern U.S. looks good from afar, but it still might give us some
relief. Maybe not as much as we'd like...certainly not last weekend's type of
relief, but possibly (get it...maybe...possibly) some "not as hot" weather. Like,
99 degrees for a heat index (I would have said 98 degrees, but I didn't get
permission from the Lachey brothers...yeah, you know who they are, admit it!)?



Yeah, that still looks pretty blazing hot to me, but maybe right after that
period, even more of a cool down. Until then, though, which is still a
fantasy-cast, heat safety is a key message with those heat index values from
105-115.





Now I would be remiss if I didn't address all the folks on
social media that think these extreme heat warnings are overblown, DESPITE the
fact that heat--at least according to NOAA--is the country's #1 weather-related
killer. Here are all the emergency department visits to OKC metro-area hospitals
from last warm season, via the Oklahoma City-County Health Department. Hundreds.
Extreme heat is dangerous, and for our most vulnerable populations...life
threatening. From 2013 to 2022, there were 141 heat-related deaths in Oklahoma.
In that same period. there were 44 deaths from tornadoes. So since severe
weather "always" happens during the spring, should the NWS/SPC stop issuing
severe weather outlooks/watches/warnings, if they also want the NWS to stop
alerting folks to extreme heat dangers since "it's always hot in August?"



Well, you get the idea there. Alerts for ALL types of hazardous weather are
extremely important, and we definitely still want those severe weather outlooks,
LIKE TODAY! Yeah, most clunky segue ever, but still, there will be a chance
of severe weather later today, with wind and some large hail being the primary
concerns.







And tomorrow, too.



Wish there was more rain being forecast, because drought is starting to be a
concern up in NE OK, and other places (clunky segue #2).





As per usual, despite the heavy rains in some parts of the state, drought was
still able to proliferate and propagate (English to Okie translation: increase
and spread) profoundly across NE and SW OK. Notice in central OK, however,
we had a very rare 2-category improvement in the Drought Monitor classification,
thanks to that widespread area of 6-11 inches of rainfall (6-11...all the fun
of 7-11, with even bigger gulps).





We do still have some significant deficits this summer, despite recent rains.



That ice storm? Hey, let's get through the next week first!

Hint: Think Halloween.

Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Mesonet
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
gmcmanus@ou.edu